momsrising near you

February 7, 2014

Spring is on its way! Not that you’d know from the temperatures outside, but really it is. Depending on your school schedule, spring can bring two important events together for parent advocates: congressional recess and spring break. District meetings are great because you can talk without lawmakers being distracted by all the beltway shenanigans clamoring for attention in D.C. The typical duration of a D.C. visit tends to be about 15-25 minutes. Face-to-face meetings I've attended with members of Congress (MOC) in a home district have lasted close to an hour. That's a lot of personal...

Cynthia Levin

momsrising near you

January 20, 2014

NC MomsRising , Northgate Mall and a number of area mothers’ associations and nonprofit organizations hosted the 4th annual “Children’s Birthday Party for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” Monday, January 20, 2014 from 10:30am-12:30pm to celebrate Dr. King’s life and legacy in a way children can understand. The free party took place at Northgate Mall’s Center Court located at 1058 West Club Boulevard in Durham. The free event featured Dr. Charmaine McKissick-Melton who, along with her sisters and brother, was one of the first black children to desegregate Durham Public Schools. In a story time...

Beth Messersmith

paid family leave childcare & early education paid sick days open flexible work momsvote family economic security momsrising near you politics & policy families & the federal budget

December 20, 2013

Two nights ago, I hosted a gathering for my new ebook, Lean On and Lead, Mothering and Work in the 21st Century Economy . The event was an opportunity to experience the interactive nature of my project as well as to meet Hawaii's Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa, a candidate for US Senate , who is one of the interviews in my book. I had specifically invited mothers and daughters, and about a dozen found time to come, during the week before Christmas. They ranged in age from 11 to 72 years old. And though they live in the same community, most of the women were not acquainted. Even I, the common...

Shay Chan Hodges

momsrising near you

November 27, 2013

Last week, MomsRising launched our newest big idea, MomsRising Near You (MRNY) , and the response from MomsRising members has been fantastic! In fact, we received some amazingly perfect questions about the MRNY program – so good, that we wanted to share them with everyone who is interested in hosting or attending a MomsRising Near You gathering! NOTE: If you’re ready to spark a gathering in your community you can visit the MRNY event page to start planning today: http://www.mo msrising.org/events/create_event/0/0 . However, if you more interested in just attending a gathering that another...

Stefanie Brown

immigration momsrising near you politics & policy

October 23, 2013

Photo below from left to right: me; Sylvia Aguilera, director of government relations for McDonald's Corporation; Jes Sofia Valle, CEO of the Bloggers of Health network; Ana Roca Castro, founder of LATISM, education tech developer and CEO of Plaza Familia ; and Laurita Tellado, the force behind the Holdin' Out for a Hero and Expresso con Leche communities. New York, NY -- As I mentioned in two previous blog posts here and here , I was gone three of four weekends in September for conferences. Last stop? The Latinos in Tech Innovation and Social Media (LATISM) annual conference at the Waldorf...

Elisa Batista

momsrising near you politics & policy

October 17, 2013

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Let's call September 2013 the month of the conference, shall we? I traveled three of four weekends for blogging, social media and networking conferences. Two of those conferences, including the Hispana Leadership Summit , took place in my childhood home state of Florida. I felt incredibly honored to be among two of my MomsRising (Latina) colleagues as well as strong Hispanic women from all professional backgrounds. We were inspired by motivational speakers, sessions on how to balance work and life, and of course, many opportunities to network with one another. Our opening...

Elisa Batista

family economic security momsrising near you Blog Carnivals

August 27, 2013

The kids were sitting “crisscross apple sauce” and waiting for story time to begin. Almost a thousand people gathered in Durham, North Carolina to celebrate Dr. King’s birthday -- a sea of black, brown, and white faces looking expectantly at the stage. And when Ms. Virginia Williams stepped up to speak, she took all of us -- children, college students, parents, and grandparents alike -- back in time with her to Durham in the hot summer of 1957 when she and six other young people staged a sit-in at the Royal Ice Cream Parlor. It was an effort that led to the first court case testing the...

Beth Messersmith

family economic security gun safety momsrising near you

July 18, 2013

I love my son. Like any mother, I would do anything for him -- anything to make sure that he can live up to his potential and fulfill all of his dreams. That's why I was completely stunned when my son -- my straight son -- was refused promotions at work for being gay. I grew up in a small town in southeastern Ohio where everyone looked like me. There was zero diversity in my early childhood. As I moved into junior high, I began hearing words like "sissy," and "dyke"...all describing people I considered friends. After my first year of college, my friend Michelle was the first person who came...

Lyn Herron

environmental health radio immigration family economic security momsrising near you

June 28, 2013

The MomsRising.org staff members who attended Netroots Nation from left to right: Angélique Roché, dream hampton, Elisa Batista, Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Karen Showalter, and Anita Sarah Jackson SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Six MomsRising.org staff members were in San Jose, California last week to partake in a series of activities at the Netroots Nation activism conference. It's a place where grassroots and Internet activists can swap ideas on issues and best practices. What was especially exciting for us is that our issues -- namely, family economic security -- were front and center at the conference...

Elisa Batista

momsrising near you

June 24, 2013

Have you heard about our new BIG IDEA floating around called MomsRising Near You? Around the country brilliant, fierce moms like you are signing up to say they're interested in getting together once a month with other MomsRising members, and we want you to get in on the excitement! What's so exciting about this? MomsRising has already mobilized millions of people to take action and WIN family-friendly policies for women and children. Just imagine what we could do if we regularly came together in-person. What's The Big Idea: Get together once a month with other MomsRising members and friends...